


Frosted Fireflowers

by tptigger



Category: Power Rangers Samurai
Genre: Birthdays, Gen, Mia can too cook, possible italics abuse, the guys learn to be better friends, video game cakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2018-02-04 15:32:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1784164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's almost Mike's birthday, and it's past time that Mia told the guys how long she's been messing with them,</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frosted Fireflowers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PunkPinkPower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkPinkPower/gifts).



> Many thanks to PunkPinkPower for the use of her headcanon that Mia can too cook, she's just been messing wit the guys because reasons, which saved this story from imminent Jossage and obscurity. The headcanon was mentioned on [The Toku Ladies Podcast](http://tokuladiespodcast.libsyn.com/) which you should all go listen to because it is awesome.
> 
> Also thanks to PockySquirrel for the beta. For the bingo square: Flowers.

Mia checked her phone as she left her cake decorating class to find a text from Emily:  
"Can I ask you a huge favor?"

"Of course. What do you need?" Mia texted back.

"Can you make Mike's birthday cake? Do you have time? I'd like to, but things have gotten crazy and I really would feel bad buying one from a store."

"I can! I'm supposed to make a birthday cake for class next week anyway!"

"Great. A real cake right? Using actual sugar."

"No messing with the guys," Mia texted back as she left the school building. "It's past time I hit them with a clue by four. What do they think I'm doing here, messing around?"

Ji had a weird labeling system: the first time she'd cooked for the team, Mia had accidentally grabbed the salt instead of the sugar. It was obvious the second she'd tasted the food, but the guys had all lied to her and told her it was good. Emily had eaten politely, then taken Mia aside afterwards.

Mia had spent the rest of their time fighting the Nylock deliberately messing up the guys' food while giving Emily (and later Lauren) the properly prepared stuff. She'd figured that the guys would eventually have enough and level with her.

They never had. And now they simply refused to eat her cooking (now that she'd admitted that she knew they didn't like it). She'd had enough.

"I'll admit that's the other reason I asked you," Emily texted back.

Mia smiled. She'd have to go easy on Mike, it was his birthday after all, but she fully intended to make Jayden and Kevin eat crow.

* * *

Mia could've kicked herself for not reading her assignment more carefully before she'd agreed to Emily's request. The assignment called for edging, writing, flowers, and some kind of bakery design. All fine, but not exactly _Mike_. (It didn't help that Kevin would tease him about a cake with flowers on it being "girly" and while Mia disagreed and would happily argue with Kevin about that, Mike's birthday hardly seemed like the time.) The simple solution would be to make two cakes-- she was learning to scale up recipes, and it wouldn't take that much more time to bake two cakes. However, Mike's birthday was on class day, and there was no way that she could make two cakes and decorate them on time without one of them starting to look a little off instead of being fresh. Since this was her proof to the guys that she knew what she was doing, she wanted to do it fully right. And she didn't want mark downs on her class grade because the frosting looked dry.

Mia clicked into a browser and typed "video game flowers" into Google. There had to be something she could use that would fulfill the assignment but still be something that Mike would appreciate.

* * *

On Mike's birthday, Mia rang the bell at Mike and Emily's place with a smile on her face.

Lauren opened the door and blew an unfurling party favor in Mia's face.

"Hi, Lauren." Mia wrinkled her nose at her friend in confusion.

"I found the cups and plates you suggested and these were right above them. Aren't they cool!"

Jayden appeared behind his big sister, his "I must remember that Lauren spent her life studying the sealing symbol and not be embarrassed" smile plastered to his face.

"Good job," Mia said brightly. She was a little nonplussed, much as Jayden was, but Lauren was so excited that it was hard to rain on her parade. She'd take Lauren aside later, without embarrassing her.

Jayden winked at Mia from behind Lauren's back, then stepped forward. "Let me rescue that from you."

Mia gladly handed him the cake, and not a moment too soon as Emily barreled out of the kitchen and practically bowled Mia over with a hug.

"Hi there," Mia said.

"Geez, Emily, let her get all the way in the door first," Mike teased, trailing in behind her.

"I missed you guys," Mia said as Emily released her. She hugged Mike. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks." Mike patted her back, releasing her except for one shoulder that he used to guide her deeper into the house. "Come on, everyone's in the kitchen."

Lauren, who must have gone back to the kitchen when Mia wasn't looking, greeted her with a conical party hat. Mia would have refused, but she caught a glimpse of Kevin wearing one (although he was sulking) so she merely accepted it and put it on, while Lauren distributed hats to Emily and Jayden.

Jayden put his on, a smile plastered on his lips.

Lauren handed something green and yellow to Mike, making a small pile in his hand. Mike looked down at his hand, then up at Lauren dubiously.

"You promised," Lauren said. "I could've bought you the birthday crown."

"I really thought I was done with this stuff when my sisters were done with it." Mike unfurled the thing and put it on his head--it was a crown of clover and dandelions.

Jayden covered his mouth with his hand.

"What?" Lauren asked.

Jayden mimed zipping his lips.

Lauren smirked at him and Mia began to wonder if Lauren wasn't as clueless as she appeared and was just seeing if she could get the rest of the team to go along. Maybe it was a way of continuing to torture them now that Mia couldn't mess with them with her cooking anymore.

Antonio came in the backdoor, a plate covered in steaming fish in his hands.

"Food!" Emily dove into a kitchen cupboard, pulling out utensils.

"Hey, Mia, how was class?" Antonio asked.

"We're going to have to eat her homework, aren't we?" Kevin's voice was so quiet that Mia barely heard it.

Jayden smacked Kevin upside the head.

"Ow!"

"Just because you're in training for the Pan Globals doesn't mean you have to be a sour puss about it." Jayden glared at Kevin.

Kevin glared back. "Watch it, the head band on this thing snapped me."

Mia suspected that it wasn't so much the breaking training as the fact that Kevin was convinced he was breaking training for lousy cake that had salt in it instead of sugar. She debated telling him that she was 100% sure she'd used sugar this time, but she kind of wanted him to eat his words along with Mike's birthday cake.

"Maybe Jayden and I should throw you in the pond out back," Mike suggested. "I think you've been out of water too long, Aqua Lad."

"Huh?" Kevin said.

"Where's Serena?" Mia asked, hoping to distract Mike from any pond throwing. Maybe get the boys to delay their roughhousing until after dinner, if not another night entirely.

"Rice," Emily said, dashing into the kitchen.

"Mia's missing a drink, too," Mike said, following her.

Mia took that for "we don't want to talk about it right now."

"I can get it," Antonio said, shooing Mike back towards the dining area. "Geez, Mike you're a demanding birthday boy."

"Well, he does have a royal crown of flowers," Jayden said.

"Jayden be nice," Laura scolded.

"What am I ever?"

"You two can make up for lost opportunities to argue on your own time." Antonio went into the refrigerator. "Diet Coke, Mia?"

"Yes, please."

Antonio grabbed a can, then brought it to the table with a can of root beer in the other hand. "Let's eat!"

The meal went about as well as could be expected, with Mike and Jayden bickering and Antonio teasing Kevin about his impossible training diet.

"So how was class?" Antonio asked as he and Mia helped Emily clear the dinner dishes away.

Mia grinned. "I got an A. I just hope Mike likes the cake as much as my teacher did."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Antonio said, his eyes darting to the floor.

Emily opened the cake box. "Mia, tell me you got pictures for your portfolio or something. Otherwise, you need to before I put the candles in."

"Wow," Antonio added.

"What?" Mike bounced to his feet and entered the kitchen area. His jaw dropped. "Wow, Mia, that looks awesome."

Mia sighed with relief. 

Jayden got up as well. "What's all... I don't even get the reference but wow."

Mia smiled. She'd drawn Mario in the middle of a forest (partly as an excuse for all the leaves she was supposed to do and partly in homage to Mike's Symbol Powers.) Mario stood atop one pipe, which was then followed by a row of pipes with 3D fire flowers coming out of each of them.

"Mia, I didn't know you played Super Mario! That's exactly what fireflowers would look like from above!" Mike exclaimed.

"I actually don't; I just did a lot of internet research," Mia said.

Mike hugged her. "That must've been a lot of work, thank you so much."

"You're welcome," Mia said.

"You're going to be great at cake decorating," Emily said.

"If you're moving the party in here, I'm coming too," Lauren said, getting up and joining them in the kitchen area.

Kevin followed, his face falling when he saw the cake.

"I won't be offended if you have to scrape off half of the frosting," Mia said. "I know that's a lot of sugar and fat."

"We also won't tell your coach if you don't," Jayden added with a wink.

"I'll eat your frosting," Mike volunteered.

"I'll make one for you after Pan Globals?" Mia offered.

"Um..." Kevin said, looking at the floor.

"So pictures, then candles, then cake," Mike said.

"Then presents," Lauren added, a shy smile on her face as she bounced back into the kitchen.

Mike cocked his head towards Lauren. "Should I be afraid?" he whispered.

"She went in with Antonio and me," Jayden said. "Well, not on the party popper things and the flower crown, but the other present."

Antonio grinned widely. "You're going to love it, bro."

Emily came back with the camera. "Too many cooks, guys; Mia and will take pictures and set up, the rest of you can sit down."

"That's cool," Antonio said.

"Kevin and Jayden are doing the dishes since the rest of us cooked or helped with set up," Emily said.

"Fair enough," Jayden said.

Kevin just shrugged. "I may get a head start on that."

"Sit," Emily commanded. 

Kevin scrambled to the table. Jayden and Mike followed at a more leisurely pace.

Emily and Mia snapped a few pictures, set out the candles...

"Go easy," Antonio called from the kitchen. "We don't want to start a forest fire.”

Mike reached out and snapped the strap on Antonio's party hat. "Just wait 'til your birthday."

Antonio glared at him while Emily lit the candles. Mia brought the cake to the table, with Emily following her, all singing "Happy Birthday."

Mia cut the cake and handed pieces around. No one touched theirs.

"The birthday boy has to go first," Lauren prompted.

Mia watched Mike's face. He took a bite and his eyes widened in surprise. Then he smiled. "Oh. My. God. Mia, this is the best cake I've ever tasted."

Jayden raised an eyebrow, then took a bite. "Wow."

Emily giggled.

Antonio took a forkful, then leaned back. "This is _golden_."

Kevin took a tentative bite. "Wow, Mia. This is _excellent_. Worth breaking training."

"It helps when I use sugar instead of salt," Mia said. "Ji was _terrible_ at labeling things in that kitchen."

"We knew where everything was," Jayden said around a bite of cake.

"I didn't," Mia said. " I totally screwed up the ingredients the first time I cooked for everyone. And you were all so freaking afraid to be honest with me, I kept doing weird things to your food to see when you'd finally 'fess up."

Jayden blanched. Kevin had the grace to blush.

"That explains a lot," Lauren said. "You never messed with my food?"

"Nope," Mia said. "And Emily was kind enough to take me aside afterwards and tell me it wasn't that good. So I left hers alone too."

Mike looked at her. "I'm sorry for lying to you. We just didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"My feelings can take some constructive criticism. The fact that you didn't think I could take it, however, _that_ hurt my feelings."

"Sorry," the boys chorused.

"Don't do it again!" Mia said. "Not to anyone."

Mike looked at Lauren. "I really, really appreciate that you took the time to make the flower crown for me, but it's really for little gir-- kids, little kids," Mike corrected himself hastily, throwing a glance at Emily.

Emily smiled at him.

"I only put it on because I really care about you and didn't want to hurt your feelings, but I'm going to take it off now, because it's really making my head itch."

"The party hats are bit much too," Jayden added, taking his off. "And made for smaller heads. Ouch!"

"Well, at least they've learned their lesson," Lauren said, looking at Mia.

Mia grinned. "I was going to tell you later, but this works too." She took off her hat, and Emily followed suit, giggling.

"You two plotted this, didn't you?" Mike asked, looking from one to the other.

Lauren and Emily dissolved into giggles.

"So why tell us now, Mia?" Jayden asked.

"Emily said it was past time," Mia said.

"Would you want store bought cake when we could have _this_?" Emily asked.

"Good point," Mike said.

"Agreed," Antonio added.

"Seconds would probably be pushing it, wouldn't they?" Kevin asked.

Mia was going to _torture_ him until Pan Globals. "So I get to make your Pan Globals victory cake?"

"Yes, please," Kevin said. "Just promise you'll use sugar."

Mia balled up her napkin and tossed it at him.

End


End file.
